Either I don't know how to use it particularly well (entirely
possible), or the MaskedTextBox included with VS2005 (and VS2008)
really sucks!!! All I need is a simple control to allow me to enter
decimal or currency values. I would prefer behavior that looks a lot
more like a standard text box, rather than showing the mask or
dictating the number of digits. I'd like it to be aware of the
decimal functionality and handle it properly (e.g. I want to be able
to type 1.23 regardlesss of how long the entry can be).

Is there a good open-source alternative out there? What are people
using? I found nothing on SourceForge. I found a few on CodeProject,
but those tend not to be maintained over time, and I don't think I've
found the ideal one yet.

This seems like such a simple and fundamental control, but I haven't
had much luck finding a good one. I thought about writing it myself,
but 1) I simply don't have the time, and 2) I can't imagine there
isn't already a good one out there!

Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks!
Brad.

Hi Brad,

I understand your concern.

The MaskedTextBox class is an enhanced TextBox control that supports a
declarative syntax for accepting or rejecting user input. It has some
restrictions, e.g. the user could only input specified length of text and
in specified mask into a MaskedTextBox. So the MaskedTextBox is not
appropriate to your scenario.

I suggest that you use a TextBox control instead and validate wether the
text the user inputs in the TextBox is valid or not using a proper regular
expression.

For a complete sample on how to do this, please refer to the following
technical article:
'Adding Regular Expression Validation'
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms996428.aspx

Hope this helps.
If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...ult.aspx#notif
ications.

Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...t/default.aspx.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Brad,

How about the problem now?

If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.

Thank you for using our MSDN Managed Newsgroup Support Service!

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

I was still hoping for some community feedback (e.g. what other people
are using). I assume, since I'm guessing this is such a common
problem, that there must be some good alternatives out there rather
than each person writing his/her own version.

Though I'm disappointed that MS doesn't have something better for
this, it's not something I expect MS to fix at this point.

Brad.

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:53:32 GMT, v-lliu (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com (Linda
Liu[MSFT]) wrote:

After trying MaskedTextbox and finding it very inadequate for numbers,
I wrote my own subclass of Textbox to allow me to limit the number of
digits before and after the decimal point. Since it wasn't hard to do
I didn't bother trying to find an existing non-MS solution, so I don't
know if there is anything available or not.

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:23:53 -0700, Bradley Plett
<plettb (AT) newsgroup (DOT) nospam> wrote:

Hi Brad,

Thank you for your reply!

You may go to the Microsoft Connect web site to make a suggestion on this
issue:
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Feedback

Thank you for your support and contribution to Microsoft!

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

There are already at least two feedback items on this topic. They
were raised when VS2005 was in beta, and it appears they simply get
dismissed. I guess there just isn't enough community support for this
kind of a thing. :-(

Brad.

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:35:10 GMT, v-lliu (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com (Linda
Liu[MSFT]) wrote:

Hi Brad,

Well, I will make a suggestion for you on this issue in our internal
discussion group.

Hope that would draw our product team's attention.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

"Bradley Plett" <plettb (AT) newsgroup (DOT) nospam> wrote

Why don't you just use a function that returns true or false to check if
numbers and the period are being entered, which can be done on the Textbox
Keypress event.

e.handle = cknumberorperiod(e.key); //or something like that.

You have to account for the backspace key in the function.

The fact that this is reasonably easy to do misses the point. Decimal
and currency entry is so common, I can't believe there is no control
included for it!

Brad.

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:06:19 -0500, "Mr. Arnold" <MR.
Arnold (AT) Arnold (DOT) com> wrote: